Method of conveying fluids



June 19, 1947.

METHOD OF CONVEYING FLUIDS Filed Aug. 30, 1941 37 34 30 31 3(6 k L l 4 E.519

g INVENTOR 3 ,z gwifiwyddafle A. H. SCHUTTE 2,421,968 I @atented Juneid, We?

parser assists asflgnor to The hummus Company, New York,

N. Y., a corporation oi? Delaware Application Animist 30, will, SerialNo. seats? This invention relates to a method of conveying ortransporting high melting point materials such as high pour point oilsand waxes. It is a. continuation-impart of the invention disclosed in myprior patent, No. 2,l68,306,'issued August 1,

' normal pumping means without building up of excessive pressures.

It is obvious that high melting point, normally solid hydrocarbonmaterials such as high pour point oils and waxes cannot be piped ortransported through conduits unless the entire apparatus isheat-jacketed; and, even when such provision is made, the pressurerequirements are increased to such a degree that the rate of dischargeis low. If at any time the conduits should become cooled, the entiremass of hydrocarbon material solidifies with the result that thawing outof the solidified mass is necessary; such procedure is prohibitivelyexpensive and, substan tially impracticable with long lines.

In accordance with the teaching of my present invention, high meltingpoint, normally solid oils or Waxes or other solid materials such asnaphthalene or other crystalline materialsare liuuefled and thereaftertransformed into an emulsion by passage through a suitable emulsifyingdevice such as a homogenizer, a colloid mill, a rotary gear pump, or thelike in admixture with a suitable quantity of a non-solvent,non-reactive liquid such as water and/or an inert, non-solvent gas suchas air to form a substantially stable emulsion. As a specific example, ahigh pour point oil is preferably emulsified with water and air to forman oil-in-water-phase emulsion. Such an emulsion is readily pumpedthrough a conduit at temperatures below the pour point of the oil, andthe use of a heat-jacketed pipe for carrying the oil is thereby avoided.The 'oil or war; may be separated from the water phase of the emulsionat the discharge end of the conduit as by settling in a tank or in anapparatus such as a centrifugal separator.

A further important advantage of the present 3 Claims. (Cl. 19%17)method is that salts and other impurities present in the oil or the waxmay be readily separated 'out along withthe water phase of the emulsionif, for example, the latter is allowed to settle into layers in asuitable tank placed at the terminus of the pipe line. It will beappreciated that this simplified method of desalting oils isparticularly advantageous in the preparation of cracking stocks, thepresence of salt in which is highly undesirable.

Further objects and advantages of my inventlon will he apparent from theaccompanying drawing, which is a schematic layout of one form ofapparatus that can be successfully used in carrying out the presentmethod, although it'will be understood that this method of preparingwaxes and high pour through conduits such as pipe lines is not limitedto this particular apparatus. For convenience, my invention will hecescrihed as applied to the handling of a pour point oil.

As more particularly described in my prior patent and application ahcyereferred to, an emulsion of a high pour point oil may he formed with asuitable nons0lvent, non-reactive liquid, preferahly water. As shown inthe accompanying drawing", the high pour pointoil is stored in asuitably jacketed tanl; it, into the jacket of which a heating mediumsuch as steam is introduced as from line ii for the purpose ofmaintaining the oil in a fluid state and at the desired temperature. Asupply of water or some other non-sol vent, non-=reactlye liquid may beconveniently maintained in a similar tank l2, which is also providedwith a jacket to receive steam as from line 33. Condensate from thejackets of tanks ill and i2 may be conveniently removed through line 53.

In accordance with the preferred form of emhodiment of my invention, theoil is withdrawn in the desired proportioned amount from tank it asthrough line it and is discharged as by means of pump 59 into manifold2!. Similarly, water to be emulsified with the oil may be withdrawn fromtank 82 through valved line it and may also be discharged into manifoldM as by means of pump 2i). Manifold 2i feeds the oil and the water tothe emulsifying device 22, wherein the desired emulsion of the oil withthe water is formed. This emulsifying device may be any suitable type,but I find that in many cases a rotary gear pump or the like is highlysatisfactory. In such case the emulsifying device or mixer 22 ispreferably provided with a bypass 2 3 so that adequate emulsification ofthe mixture point oils for pumping I 3 can be obtained by continuousrecirculation of a portion thereof. The resulting emulsified mixture isdischarged into line 28. which is provided with a relief valve 21 set ata predetermined pressure to assure the formation of the desiredemulperature and the characteristics of the resulting emulsion, I

find that it is desirable to introduce a cooling medium such as thenon-solvent, nonreactive liquid incooled condition, which in this caseis cold water, directly into the recirculated emulsion as at 29, inaccordance with the procedure more completely described in my patent,No. 2,254,049, dated August 26, 1941. By the introduction of coolingwater in this manner, I am able to discharge the emulsion into line 29at any predetermined temperature, which will generally be below the pourpoint of the oil." The temperature selected will, of course, bedetermined by the atmospheric conditions of the particular locality. I 1

At least a portion of the cooling water introducedat 29 under sufllcientpressure enters into the oil-water emulsion that is formed in theemulsifying device 22. It will thus be appreciated that all or only apart of the water that goes into the emulsion can be introduced into thesystem through line 29. I find, however, that .itis preferable and mostconvenient from an operating viewpoint to introduce all the water foremulsification purposes through line 29. In this manner tank I2 can bedispensed with. The remainder of the cooling water introduced at 29serves to remove the heat of emulsiflcation and to chill the resultingemulsion so that at least the higher melting point portion thereofsolidifies as described in my above-mentioned patent.

The proportion of water to oil is, of course, determined by theconditions present in any particular case. Governing factors include thetemperature of the available water, the characteristics of the oil beingemulsified. and the prevailing atmospheric conditions. The amount of airutilized is relatively small and is generally considerably less than theamount of water.

I find that the resulting emulsion is readily pumpable even though thetemperature thereof drops materially as the emulsion flows through thepipe line. This condition resultsfrom the fact that cooling ,acts tostabilize the emulsion. The distance through which the emulsion can bepumped islimited only by the pressure drop encountered in the particularpipe line. At distances of many miles it may be found desirable to useone or more booster pumps as generally indicated at 9i, which may beeither of the centrifugal type or of the positive displacement type. Itis contemplated that emulsions of this character can thus be pumped fora considerable distance through a line such as indicated at 90 withoutexcessive power requirements and without steam-iacketing of such a lineand without danger of solidification of the emulsified material therein.

Separation of the emulsion into its components at the end of the line isreadily accomplished by heating the emulsion as in heat exchanger 34 andthen discharging the heated emulsion into a receiving or settling tankgenerally indicated at 99. The heating serves to break the emulsion sothat it can be readily separated. Preferably the" heated emulsion isdischarged into tank 89 at such a point that it will quickly stratifyinto a relatively light oil layer which is drawn off through pipe 31 anda relatively heavy water layer which is drawn off through line 39. Tank39 may also be provided with a Jacket,.through which steam or the likemay be circulated as by means of lines 39 and 40 to maintain thematerials in the tank in liquid condition and at the desiredtemperature. It will be appreciated that a centrifugal separatorcan beused in place of the settling tank or in addition thereto.

Salts and other impurities or undesired mate-- rials present in the oilcan also be separated from the oil together with the water used foremulsiflcation. Those impurities such as inorganic matters which areinsoluble become concentrated at the interface between the water and theoil layers, and those impurities such as salts and the like which aresoluble dissolve in the water layer. Such impurities can be convenientlyremoved along with the water layer for suitable disposal. It appearsthat. the emulsi-flcation procedure causes these impurities to separateout from the oil and to accumulate in the water layer. A similar resultis obtained when a centrifugal separator is employed.

As an example of the application of my invention to the pumping of highpour point oils, I have emulsified a 90 F. pour point pressabledistillate with water and air and have successfully pumped the resultingemulsion through a considerable length of pipe at a temperature ofapproximately 50 R, which is materially below the pour point of the oil.My invention, however, is also applicable to the pumping of high pourpoint crude oils and other relatively high pour point oil fractions.

My process has also been successfully applied to the pumping of waxessuch as slack wax and the like. I have been able to pump an emulsion ofa crude scale wax having a melting point of 127 F. and water at atemperature of approximately F. without plugging of the pipe line bysolidification of the wax.

In accordance with the teachings of this invention, relatively highmelting or pour point, normally solid, organic materials heretoforenormally unpumpable or diflicultly pumpable at normal atmospherictemperatures through pipes or conduits may be easily and economicallyconveyed over considerable distances with conventional pumpingequipment. The additional water or the like that makes up the waterphase of the emulsion does not reduce the total volume Of difiicultlypumpable material handled, inasmuch as the conversion of such materialinto an emulsion permits a. substantial increase in the pumping ratewith an ultimate volume of material pumped far in excess of thatobtainable by pumping of such material in an unemulsifled condition. Theuse of air or the like in conjunction with the water is generallypreferable since i provides an emulsion that can be more readilyhandled. It will be understood that the applicability of my invention islimited only by the melting or pour point of the particular material tobe pumped and by the availability of a suitable non-solvent,non-reactive liquid having a boiling point sufliciently high.

In certain cases it may be desirable to employ an emulsifying agent toassist in the formation of the oil-water emulsion. If such procedure is.

carbon material to a distant point through a supply pipe line for suchmaterial of the order of miles in length, which comprises liquefyingsuch material, emulsifying the liquefied material with water and air,cooling the resulting emulsion to a pumping temperature below themelting point of such material to solidify at least a portion of suchhydrocarbon material and thereby stabilize the emulsion, pumping theso-cooled and stabilized emulsion through the pipe line to the distantpoint, and thereafter separating the water from the hydrocarbonmaterial.

2. The method of rendering a high melting point, normally solidcrystalline hydrocarbon material transportable at a temperature belowits melting point and transporting such hydrocarbon material to adistant point through a supply pipe line for such material of the orderof miles in length,-which comprises liquefying such material,emulsifying the liquefied material with water and air, cooling theresulting emulsion to a pumping temperature below the melting point ofsuch material to solidify at least a portion of such hydrocarbonmaterial and thereby stabilize the emulsion, pumping the so-cooled andstabilized emulsion through the pipe line to the distant point, andthereafter separating the water from the hydrocarbon material.

3. The method of rendering a high melting point, normally solid waxcontaining hydrocarbon material transportable at a temperature below itsmelting point and transporting such hydrocarbon material to a distantpoint through a supply pipe line for such material of the order of milesin length, which comprises liquei'ying such material,

emulsifying the liquefied material with water and air, cooling theresulting emulsion to a pumping temperature below the melting point ofsuch material to solidify at least a portion of such hydrocarbonmaterial and thereby stabilize the emulsion, pumping the so-cooled andstabilized emulsion through the pipe line to the distant point, thenheating the emulsion to a temperature above the melting point of suchmaterial to effect a breaking of such' emulsion, and thereafterseparating the water from the hydrocarbon material.

AUGUST HENRY SCHUTTE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 194,275 Turner Aug. 14, 1877278,844 Arendt et a1. June 5, 1883 1,008,980 Mills Nov. 14, 19111,454,485 Persch May 8, 1923 1,514,118 Wright Nov. 4, 1924 2,168,306Schutte Aug. 1, 1939 2,263,535 Carr et al Nov. 18, 1941 2,942,428Krekeler May 26, 1936 2,119,538 Hampton June 7, 1938 1,787,338 ClappDec. 30, 1930' 1,940,431 Neitzke Dec. 19, 1933 2,128,913 Burk Sept. 6,1938

